Dollar Tree Tombstone Corner Scenery (Finally!) Painted

    Figuring it was about that time that stores start putting out their Halloween merchandise, I thought it was about time I finished panting the Tombstone Corner scenery pieces I bought at the local Dollar Tree store around this time last year.  You can see my original post on the subject here.

   I had painted the gargoyles last year, but I still had the bigger pieces to complete.  They had been languishing on  my workbench for a year now with nothing but a flat black primer coat applied.

So, this past week, I finished them up, and here are the results.  While not the greatest pieces of scenery, considering their $1 price tag, I think they'll do quite nicely to fill out a table. 

 Shown with a 28mm Reaper Bones figure.

     

I'm hoping they produce more pieces for this line this year. But, so far I have not seen any in my local stores.

HAWKs Hold "Armies For Kids: BARRAGE Edition" Painting Bee

  This past Saturday members of the HAWKs got together to paint over 400 20mm plastic WWII German soldiers for an "Armies For Kids" giveaway game they will be running at their upcoming one-day miniatures gaming con, BARRAGE .

      Six lucky kids who take part in the game at BARRAGE will walk away with both an Allied and a German army, complete with tanks, infantry and machine guns.

    The HAWKs had already painted the Allied troops at an earlier painting day.
    This project was made possible by Ed Mohrmann who donated a large box of 20mm WWII figures, and John Acar who donated four  20mm tank models.  A couple of the HAWKs also chipped in items from their own collections to fill out the units.

Where it All Began...

   While sorting through a stack of rulebooks in my warroom, I came across my original wargame rulebooks: "Rally 'Round the Flag"  and "Angriff!".    I got RRtF first, in the late '70's, at a small regional con at a college in PA. My parents had taken me because of my interest in Avalon Hill games, and at the con I was first exposed to miniatures gaming.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Heritage had a booth there and tending it was Duke Seifried himself.  We asked what I needed to get started in this "miniatures gaming" thing, and he set me up with some 15mm ACW packs, basic paints, and this rulebook. Kindly purchased by my mom & dad.  Needless to say, I was hooked.
 

     A year or two later, I purchased the "Angriff!" rules as my interests expanded into WWII.  Sadly, I don't remember where it came from, but I suspect a small brick and mortar hobby shop; as it became my standard procedure that whenever my parents and I traveled anywhere, I would look in the local phone book for any hobby shops and we would have to visit to see if they had anything miniatures related.
   Though I haven't played "Angriff!" since the early '80's, RRtF is still a great set of rules, which I would still pull out now and then to play as late as the early '00s.